


Holes in the Fabric

by Clocketpatch



Series: Old Rags [2]
Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-12-24
Updated: 2007-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-04 05:42:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1077233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clocketpatch/pseuds/Clocketpatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sequel to Thrown Away. Jack, Peri and Yrcanos are headed for Earth, but the Time Agency is in hot pursuit. There's also the matter of the man with the pool. Who is he and what is his connection to Jack and Peri?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Flying High

  
_Summary of Events previous,  
These events took place in the fic “Thrown Away” and though knowledge of them is essential, the reading of that fic is not, hence this niffy sum-up (I do recommend reading the fic though, because I’m insanely proud of it and want to share):_   
  
_After PotW, Jack returned to Earth where he was promptly arrested by the 51st century’s version of Torchwood (which is in cahoots with the time Agency) and questioned by a grade A creepy named Mr. Wicks. Jack escaped though and stole a times ship. He was slightly dead at the time (thanks to Mr. Wick’s gun) and couldn’t disengage the auto-pilot. It brought him (with a bit of a crash) to the planet of Kropten where he met an unlikely castaway: Peri Brown, abandoned companion of the Doctor and queen to the Kropten’s king. Jack has just fixed his ship and offered Peri a lift home and she’s accepted. Her loud barbarian king husband Yrcanos is coming too. Just for visual clarification, Peri and her husband are both wearing barbarian furs, Jack is in a rather ugly silver uniform he filched off the Time Agency. Enjoy!_   
  


Oo0oO

  
  
  
The inside of Jack’s ship sparkled. Peri blinked at the transformation from the darkened hulk she had been inside a few hours ago. It also seemed very much snugger. Her husband had a way of dominating rooms, and the way his head was bent over made the ship’s ceiling look very much shorter than it was.  
  
“You can take a seat over there,” said Jack, waving his arm at a short bench spanning the back wall. Its moulded red cushions blended well with the ship’s mostly silver décor. Peri and Yrcanos complied. Yrcanos shouted something about Jack’s kind generosity, but Peri was too busy to listen. Her thoughts were focused one the bench's features, or rather, lack of a feature.  
  
“Aren’t there any seat belts?”  
  
“Why would there be seat belts?” Jack asked, “It’s not like I’m going to crash. Now hold on.” Jack sat in the pilot’s swivel chair, gave himself a spin, and then pressed a few buttons on the control panel. The ship vibrated.  
  
One of Peri’s hands gripped the red foam of the cushion, the other squeezed her husband’s leg. He let out a hearty laugh. As Jack’s ship cleared the atmosphere Yrcanos let out a mighty cheer that shook through the ship with as much force as the vibrations of take-off:  
  
“Up! Up! And Away!”   


Oo0oO

  
  
  
  
_”This ship doesn’t clear space instantly”, Jack explained, “she isn’t a TARDIS, she takes time to get places.” Not years or months like some clunkers he knew of, but it would be a good day and a half before they got anywhere near Earth. Then he asked the ship to serve some refreshments. Peri was amazed when Jack met Yrcanos in alcohol consumption without becoming inebriated._  
  
It turned out that watching Jack down drinks was the only entertainment system on board. After awhile Peri drifted off from sheer boredom. She half-woke several hours later to find that her husband had also succumbed to sleep. She lifted her lids just high enough to see the pilot’s seat.   
  
Jack spun lazily, occasionally flicking switches on the console. Peri felt her eyes drifting shut again when Jack did something very disturbing.  
  
He first checked on Peri and Yrcanos, and on discerning that they were asleep, he attacked the control panel. A long sheet of metal slid off and he started ripping at the vital-looking exposed wires and cables underneath. The ship groaned.  
  
“Stop it!” Peri shouted, springing from the bench.  
Jack did. He spun in his chair to look at her, a bundle of circuits dropping from one hand.  
  
“You’re suppose to be asleep,” he said, “I drugged the hyper vodkas.”  
  
“I didn’t drink your hyper vodkas,” Peri said.  
  
“Oh.” He turned and started pulling out more of the ship’s critical innards. “You missed out.” He paused to toss a large and important-looking part of the ship to Peri before continuing.  
  
Peri stared in distress at the piece of metal tubing in her hand before dropping it.  
  
“Are you crazy?”  
  
“Some people have said I am. Right now —“ he grunted as he reached an obstacle. Half his body was buried in the control panel and his voice was coming back muffled. “- I’m trying to disable the ship’s tracking system.”  
  
“Isn’t that a good thing though?” asked Peri.  
  
“Only if we want people to find us.”  
  
“We don’t want people to find us?” Peri questioned with a raised eyebrow.  
  
“Not these people,” Jack pulled out of the bowels of the control panel holding what looked like a small snow globe. “Got it. I wrecked it before, but the repair bots fixed it along with everything else.” He dropped it. The snow globe burst sending little bits of glass skidding across the floor towards the bench and Peri's feet. The liquid that spewed out was too viscous to be water, and the “snow” looked suspiciously like a cascade of microchips.  
  
“Now we’re safe,” said Jack. “Tracker and auto-pilot are —“ He ground down on the broken glass with his foot to make a crunching sound. Then he carefully replaced the metal sheet he had removed from the control panel, concealing the damage he had done.  
  
“You didn’t want me to know,” said Peri, “why not?”  
  
“Well, it’s my ego. This here ship isn’t quite mine, but being a thief has such negative connotations so I decided to skip that conversation.”   
  
“You stole this ship?”  
  
“Yes Miss states the obvious and repeats people. I grabbed her off the Time Agency, course they weren’t too happy about that, and I wasn’t too happy when the ship’s auto-pilot crashed me on your backwards little Queendom.”  
  
“Why would the Time Agency, whoever they are, set a ship to go to Kropten,” Peri asked hating the whine in her voice. She leaned forward on the bench for her answer.  
  
“Probably to remove a rouge time element.”  
  
“A what?”  
  
Jack gave her a blank “are you stupid?” look.  
  
“Something that doesn't fit with its timezone. The Time Agency picked up a signal from Kropten and prepared a ship to go and remove it. They're very sensitive about unauthorized time travel. I've got a two year sized hunk missing out of my mind to prove it.”  
  
“But there's nothing like that on Krontep. It's just a big ice cube.”  
  
“There was you.” Jack flipped a series of switches. Nothing happened. He ripped off the control panel’s metal covering again and yanked out a handful of wires. A row of lights came on. He ripped out a few more vital-looking parts and tossed them to Peri. “Good, recall circuits gone. Thanks for reminding me. 48th century?”  
  
Peri felt a bit nauseous. She carefully put down the mass of technology she was holding.   
  
“What?”  
  
“48th century, that’s what I’m guessing from your accent. Right after the Britanglo invasion of NewNewMerica?”  
  
“What?” Peri shook her head putting together Jack’s words. The invasion of…? She figured it out. “No my Dad, my real Dad was British. Please don’t tease me about it. The Doctor used to. It was awful.”  
  
Jack’s hands played over the control panel.  
  
“So when are you from then?”  
  
“198-“  
  
He cut her off in mid-date with two concise words to shatter her dreams:  
  
“I'm sorry.”  
  
He noted her face and continued explaining.  
  
“This is a D-class Time Agency reconnaissance vessel. It has a two thousand year range and only in one direction from the starting point. That brings us to the 31st century. You don't mind the 31st century do you?”  
  
“I'm not from the 31st century,” she protested.  
  
“That makes two of us, and it’s a crummy century anyway. Very conservative, no room for a flexible guy and his —“   
  
_Penis?_ Peri thought but didn’t suggest out loud.  
  
“We aren’t going to the 31st century,” Jack concluded.  
  
“If the Time Agency were coming to bring me back, why did they prepare a ship that can only go back two thousand years?”  
  
“Didn't you hear me? They weren't coming to return you; they were coming to remove you.”  
  
“They would have killed me?” she said, not really comprehending the implications. It was unfathomable that anyone would travel to a different galaxy just to kill her. She wasn’t that important.  
  
“Good thing I showed up instead isn't it?”  
  
Peri brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them. So she wasn’t going home. _D-class Time Agency reconnaissance vessel._ She was just trapped again - hurtling through space with a thief and an ex-king, and some agency she had never heard of was out to get her.   
  
Her head hurt.  
  
“Where are we going?” she asked.  
  
Jack jammed down a lever.   
  
“No idea, let’s find out.”  
  
The overhead lights flashed off and came back mauve, the ship trembled under the strain of the vortex, and Jack grinned his stupid head off.


	2. Flying Low

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack drops an f-bomb, but beyond that it's clean. A thousand thanks to my beta ann_blue for making this a thousand times better than the original draft.

  
  
The conversation died after Peri realised she wouldn't be going home. Jack had no words of comfort to offer her and several awkward hours of silence followed, punctuated by the hissing of the vortex against the sides of the ship, and Yrcanos' random snores. Peri stroked his forehead as he slept. It was warm, but not fevered, but still she worried:   
  
He had gulped down quite a bit of Jack's drugged alcohol. Who was to say he hadn't slipped into a coma?   
  
Jack seemed unconcerned. Captain Jack — she wondered, did he ever count as a captain if he stole the ship? He had a pretty face, and had saved her _said he had saved her_ from the Time Agency, but could she trust him? He fiddled with the control panel, a bored expression on his face. He seemed to be purposely ignoring Peri. Finally she couldn't stand it anymore.   
  
"So you travelled with the Doctor too?" she asked. She leaned back in her seat, unconsciously trying to put a bit more distance between herself and Jack.   
  
Jack didn't say anything for a few seconds, briefly Peri wondered if he would respond at all. If he wasn’t with the Doctor anymore there had to be a reason.  
  
"Yes," he said, it coming out more as a breath than a word, "I did."  
  
"Did he leave you behind too?"  
  
Jack spun to look at Peri. She leaned forward now. If he hadn’t been left behind then maybe it was just a fluke. Deep down she still couldn’t accept that the Doctor had abandoned her.  
  
"Yes," he said in a chop-word of a sentence. His eyes were unreadable, almost vacant. Peri slumped back. No fluke then, and no second chances.  
  
"It wasn't his fault," Jack quickly recovered, his eyes sparkling back to something that almost resembled life, "He had no way of knowing I was alive."  
  
"Wouldn't have mattered," said Peri, she was exhausted from everything that had happened to her mentally and physically over the last couple of years. She was homesick and tired, and could see no easy remedy to either, and it was all his fault. "He knew I was alive. It was his fault I nearly got killed."  
  
"The Doctor is a dangerous man," Jack said off the tip of his tongue before turning back to the control panel.   
  
Peri snorted. She had been given a lot of time to think over her abandonment. Jack didn't seem to be doing anything with the ship’s controls. His hands shuffled over the buttons but never pressed any.   
  
"We'll be coming back to Earth soon," he said.  
  
 _But not her time_  
  
"He's more than dangerous. He's unstable,” Peri spat through pressed lips. “One day you think you know him, the next day he's a different person and he's trying to kill you. He didn't just leave me, he _wanted_ me to die. He bought me to that planet against my will when I wanted to go home and then gave me to those slugs to kill. He's crazy!"   
  
Jack continued his busy-making.  
  
"Yrcanos has sworn an oath to kill him if we meet again," she added quietly.  
  
And again no response. His silence had an almost belittling air about it. He was blatantly ignoring her while he tinkered uselessly with the controls of his ship. Jack was a lot like the Doctor, Peri reflected.   
  
No, not like the Doctor. No one could ever fill that gap. Crazy he might have been, or become, but she still missed the man _alien? Time Lord_ who had given up his life to save hers. She also reflected that if the day came she might not let her husband carry out his oath, out of respect for that man the Doctor had been.   
  
The ship buzzed its white noise, Jack fiddled, and Peri snuggled against her husband's snoring bulk. The warmth and light vibrations were very conducive to sleep, but Peri had already taken two unscheduled naps that day. She was anxious to move, and the knowledge that she would not be going home, but once again into the unknown, did nothing to help her fidgeting.   
  
"Are we going to the 31st century?" she asked.  
  
Jack slapped his hand on the control panel. Peri flinched, wondering if she had said the wrong thing.  
  
"Where do prisoners always run?" Jack asked like it was obvious.  
  
"I, I don't know," said Peri, not really understanding the question, or if was even directed at her. Jack wasn't looking at her, but she could tell his mood from his voice and the tension of is shoulder blades; it didn't set her at ease.   
  
"As far away as possible," he paused to let that sink in, "Now where would the Time Agency be looking for us?"   
  
Peri worked out that logic, and countered with some of her own, something that had been bothering her: "But if they can find me on Kropten, and I didn't even do anything to them, can't they find us anywhere?"  
  
"No safe place," Jack said, "Cat and mouse, I'm always game for a bit of excitement. How about you Peri?"  
  
"I just want to go home," She said, hating the slight whine in her voice.  
  
Without warning the ship heaved to one side, leaving Peri sprawled out on the floor. The lights flashed mauve then went out. The control panel compensated by throwing out enough sparks to light up a stadium.   
  
"What's happening?" Peri asked, trying to pull herself up only to be flattened by another lurch. She gave a glance to her husband, also on the floor, and still out for the count.   
  
_this wouldn't have happened if we had seatbelts_   
  
"Just a little bit of excitement, Peri," Jack said lightly, but his back was still tensed.  
  
Jack grabbed a joy-stick on the roman-candling control panel. He jerked it to the left, using his entire body as leverage. The ship followed suit, banking sharply. For not the first time in her topsy-turvy life, Peri felt as though she was going to be sick. She just hoped —   
  
Jack brought the ship through a loop-the-loop.  
  
Yrcanos woke up roaring his head off as the ship stabilized. Peri tried to put her stomach back into her body where it belonged.   
  
“The winds blow through the skies!” Yrcanos shouted, “Is a storm upon us?”   
  
"Was that really necessary?" Peri asked.  
  
Jack didn't answer either question, and Peri wondered if he had heard her over the noise. Alarms were blaring, her husband was blaring… she noticed that the control panel had started to smoke, but Jack was still gripping tightly to his joy-stick.   
  
"Are we at war!" Yrcanos shouted. Whatever Jack had given him hadn't fixed his volume control.  
  
"Just a little bit," said Jack.  
  
"Then point me to the battle and I will fight for my Queen with honour and fist!"  
  
Yrcanos climbed into what looked like he though was a heroic pose. It didn't help his image that the ship keep rocking and throwing him off his feet.   
  
"I hate to break it to you, Hercules," said Jack from gritted teeth, "but we're inside a spaceship, they're inside a spaceship, and fists ain't a whole bunch of use against steel and kill-o-zap guns. I don't see you walking across the vortex to plant the punch either, SO GET BACK IN YOUR SEAT!"   
  
And to Peri's surprise Yrcanos did, though not without shouting compliments to Jack for his great foresight. The ship rattled under a deluge of — Peri decided not to think about it. She was still on her hands and knees on the floor, and he left arm felt wet starting at the elbow. She must've cut it on some of the junk Jack had pulled out of the control panel.   
  
She didn't have much time to survey the red trail as it dribbled towards the deck. Something grabbed her. She let out a little yelp as her husband grabbed her into a tight embrace. The ship shook again. The lights came back on, but they flickered like a disco strobe adding to the ache in Peri's head.   
  
"What's happening?" she asked meekly, and not sure that she wanted an answer.  
  
"Time Agency," Jack grunted. A great cracking noise echoed through the ship, shaking Peri to her bones. "Damn it!" Jack yelled, "They shouldn't have found us so fast. I removed the fucking tracker."   
  
"May — Maybe there were two?" Peri suggested.  
  
"Who puts two trackers in one ship?" Jack asked, and then grunted again as the ship jerked violently, driving him into the control panel. The metal pane he had put down to hide his in-flight mechanics came loose and smacked him across the jaw. Peri winced for him as he pawed the pane away. He grabbed the joy-stick and yanked it. The ship swerved sickeningly again.   
  
"What are we doing?" Peri asked.  
  
"Trying to get away," Jack shouted, "What does it look like we're doing? But they're following our manoeuvres. Look!" He pressed a few buttons with is free hand and a cracked screen dropped out of the ceiling. There were two dots on it, one white and one purple, and whatever the white one did the purple one was gaining. A little red ball spit out of the purple one. The ship rocked as it was hit and the screen went blank.   
  
"They've set up a time barrier," Jack shouted.  
  
"They are cowards who flee the test of true combat and hide behind their feebleness!" Yrcanos shouted.  
  
"You've got it right, Hercules," Jack shouted as the ship disintegrated a bit more around them. He let go of the joy-stick and suddenly everything was chaos. Peri didn't know which way was up, she could barely remember what the concept meant. She felt like a toad in a washing machine. Jack was doing something in the control panel, except it seemed to have caught fire, and she hoped that he wasn't burning himself.   
  
_**Timejump Enabled**_  
  
The voice was everywhere and nowhere. The ship hadn't talked before, and she didn't know why it was talking now.   
  
"Hang on!" Jack shouted.  
  
And she did by gripping her husband for dear life as he shouted about death and glorious Valhalla . Then time itself started ripping, and she could feel the ship greedily sucking at her life-force. The lights went out and somewhere in the darkness Jack's screams joined hers.


	3. Flying straight into the ground

  
"So you travelled with the Doctor too?" Peri asked.  
  
"Did he leave you behind too?"  
  
Yes and yes, what did she want from him? And then she was explaining how the Doctor was a dangerous man. Of course he was. Only an idiot wouldn't see that.  
  
But he was a good man, Jack knew. He remembered sitting in his Chula ship a year ago with fear tingling in his throat as he gripped the cool, slightly damp stem of a glass containing a hyper vodka and waited to die. Then with a sound like a broken orchestra the Doctor's blue box had appeared to save him from more than the German bomb that was set to destroy his ship and his life.   
  
He could hear Peri fidgeting behind him. She wanted him to say something, give a reply, anything. But he didn't know what to say. Agree? Disagree? Both? _What had the Doctor saved her from?_ If anything. Had she also changed as a person travelling with the Doctor? Could anyone travel with that man, alien? and remain unchanged.  
  
Or did they change at all? Jack had been a thief, and now he was just a thief again, on the run and damn to the consequences. Really, the Doctor hadn't paid much attention to those either. So why should Jack?   
  
Except Jack could sense some consequences approaching that would have to be dealt with. He dragged his hands across the controls. Yes, there were vibrations there that only a trained time pilot could pick up. Bad vibrations.   
  
"Are we going to the 31st century?" Peri asked.  
  
On and on with questions when the answers were obvious. Was she really that thick? Or maybe he was the thick one? He could feel the tremors of approaching doom under his hand creeping closer and closer. The thought of being blown up again made him testy.   
  
"Where do prisoners always run?" he asked. His teeth were clenched.  
  
"I, I don't know," said Peri.   
  
"As far away as possible," he paused to let that sink into her head, "Now where would the Time Agency be looking for us?"   
  
He waited to see if she would get the answer. He heard her shuffle in her seat, the cushions creaking under her shifting weight.  
  
"But if they can find me on Kropten, and I didn't even do anything to them, can't they find us anywhere?" she said, using what he thought was a surprising amount of logic.  
  
Those vibrations were getting stronger. He could drop the view screen to check his instincts, but he didn't need to. He knew what was coming. Peri was right, they could be found anywhere, but why the Time Agency was looking for her in the first place still alluded him. Rouge time element sure, but Peri wasn't a big enough problem to send out an assassin ship. Something else was going on.   
  
"No safe place," said Jack, voice his convoluted thoughts, "Cat and mouse, I'm always game for a bit of excitement. How about you Peri?" he turned his head and gave her smile that didn't include his eyes.   
  
"I just want to go home," Peri said pleadingly. _like he had promised her_   
  
He turned back to the control panel feeling guilty. Peri and her crazy husband hadn't signed up for an inter-stellar shoot-out. If he hadn't been such an idiot he would have asked what year she was from and none of this would have happened. If he had been more concerned with details than with staring at her chest, and the chest of that luscious techie who had helped him fix his ship. He bit his tongue and looked for a way out, shuffling his hands over the shaking controls searching for any loopholes, any discrepancies in the feed-back. He was a con man, the expert at quick escapes. There was _always_ a way out.  
  
Except this time there wasn't. The vibrations reached a crescendo. The rattling metal made a noise, a high pitched buzz, and then the first wave of shots hit.  
  
"What's happening?" Peri yelped as the ship reeled to one side.  
  
"Just a little bit of excitement, Peri," Jack said, keeping his tone light, slightly mocking, though he didn't mean it. None of them deserved this.  
  
The lights were out and the control panel in front of him was sending off fireworks to beat those on America's one-thousandth birthday. Not a charming thought since Jack knew about the war (and had visited) that had broken out a week after that birthday party. He grabbed onto the ship's manual control stick, the sparks biting at his knuckles. He could feel the heat blistering his fingers as he pulled the ship through a loop the loop.   
  
Peri's husband woke up and started shouting to match the alarms. Jack couldn't concentrate, but he had to concentrate, their lives depended on -  
  
He coughed on a cloud of smoke and jerked the control stick to the left.  
  
"Are we at war!" Yrcanos shouted.   
  
"Just a little bit," said Jack from between gritted teeth.  
  
"Then point me to the battle and I will fight for my Queen with honour and fist!"  
  
"I hate to break it to you, Hercules," said Jack, struggling to keep his sanity, his body, and his ship all in working, non-disintegrated, order, "but we're inside a spaceship, they're inside a spaceship, and fists ain't a whole bunch of use against steel and kill-o-zap guns. I don't see you walking across the vortex to plant the punch either, SO GET BACK IN YOUR SEAT!" He turned to meet Yrcanos wild eyes while shouting the last part.   
  
"You lead well noble captain of my Peri!" Yrcanos shouted before complying with the command.  
  
Jack mentally filed shouting as an effective way of dealing with Peri's crazy husband. Then the ship shuddered again, hard, and he was sure he felt a few of his more vital organs detach under the strain. He turned back to the control breathing hard.  
  
"What's happening?" Peri asked. Her voice had dropped to a squeak.  
  
"Time Agency," Jack grunted. A great cracking noise echoed through the ship as another salvo of shots rent the hull, shaking Peri to her bones. "Damn it!" Jack yelled, "They shouldn't have found us so fast. I removed the fucking tracker."   
  
"May — Maybe there were two?" Peri suggested.  
  
"Who puts two trackers in one ship?" Jack asked, and then grunted again as the ship jerked violently, driving him into the control panel. The metal pane he had put down to hide his in-flight mechanics came loose and smacked him across the jaw. He quickly pawed it away, ignoring the blood that was running freely down his chin. He grabbed the joy-stick and yanked it. The ship swerved sickeningly.   
  
"What are we doing?" Peri asked.  
  
"Trying to get away," Jack shouted, "What does it look like we're doing? But they're following our manoeuvres. Look!" He thumbed the appropriate controls and the view screen came down to show the battle, and then shattered into uselessness as another barrage hit. Jack looked desperately for an escape into the vortex.   
  
"They've set up a time barrier!" he yelled his frustration.  
  
"They are cowards who flee the test of true combat and hide behind their feebleness!" Yrcanos shouted."  
  
"You've got it right, Hercules," Jack shouted as the ship disintegrated a bit more around them. He let go of the joy-stick and suddenly everything was chaos.   
  
_**Timejump Enabled**_  
  
 _thank you, thank you, thank you_  
  
Jack didn't know how he'd bypassed the barrier, and he didn't care. The control panel lights (the ones that weren't burnt out or on fire) were blinking something crazy, signalling a rough trip.  
  
"Hang on!" he shouted.  
  
Then the vortex swallowed them. Half-way through the process he realised that one of the blinking lights was signalling a fuel leak, and the thought ripped through his mind that they wouldn't have enough power to exit the vortex. An instant later that thought was pushed aside by a growing pain. Something was ripping his insides out through his brain.   
  
He'd been through a lot of time jumps and that had never happened. He tried to get a hold of himself and find a reason for the agony that was slamming him back into his seat. The only thing he could thinks was that the Time Agency ship had sent some sort of weapon after them into the vortex, but that didn't make sense. If such weapons existed he would know about them. He tried to straighten himself out and think coherently, to ignore to sweat spilling over into his eyes. He could hear himself screaming, and he could hear Peri voicing her own torment behind him.   
  
He was too curled over in pain to notice the fuel indicator light quietly change colour tones from mauve to green.  
  
Oo0oO  
  
  
Far removed from the drama revolving around Jack's damaged spaceship, a man standing in the backyard of his suburban home surveyed his new swimming pool. It was oblong with a black, star-sprinkled custom liner. A garden hose playfully sloshed water into its partially filled deep-end.   
  
The man smiled approvingly. Despite certain threats uttered towards him during his youth, his life had turned out fine. He was forty-five years old and in good health (though a bit bald, but that, unlike the garish Hawaiian shirt he was wearing, couldn't be helped). He had a good job, a wife, and three kids. His oldest would be graduating from college in the fall. He was so proud of her. He also had a dog, Benny, a five year old English sheepdog who was currently sleeping on top of his foot.   
  
Not a bad life.  
  
Then the drama revolving around Jack's wounded spaceship caught up with him, or more specifically with his pool, and the man leapt backwards shouting bloody murder. He tripped over a lawn chair and ended up tangled with it on the deck. Benny passed through his normally long and muzzy wake-up phase with record speed to start barking at the smouldering alien wreck now inhabited what had, moments before, been just an ordinary half-filled pool in an ordinary suburban yard.   
  
A moment later the hatch of the dented ship wrenched itself open. The pool owner watched with wide eyes from under his lawn chair as a man dressed in a bloody and torn silver suit climbed out. The spaceman stood on top of his craft for a moment blinking. He noticed the pool owner lying stunned beneath his lawn chair and waved to him, as if to say: "I acknowledge you, and I'll deal with you, but later." Then he turned back to the still open hatch and lowered his arm to help, of all people, a young woman dressed in primitive furs exit the craft. The man under the lawn chair boggled. The young woman was followed by another man, or perhaps it was some sort of space giant, dressed in the same primitive furs, except this man had a sword strapped to his hip.   
  
When all three individuals were assembled on top of the crashed ship the man in the silver suit waved at the man under the lawn chair once again.  
  
"Sorry about the pool." Jack grinned with a wink.  
  
The man under the lawn chair realised he was under a lawn chair and pushed it off. He shakily got to his feet.  
  
"That's okay," he said in a British accent, he voice quavering at the same frequency as his knees. He wasn't scared per-say — this wasn't the first spaceship he had seen in his life — but it had been a long time since his last encounter, and it was the first time one had crashed into his pool. It hadn't been excepted to say the least, and though he was in good health his frantically beating heart reminded him that he was the right age for heart-attacks. The man wondered if this event would tip his slightly high blood pressure into the risky zone.   
  
He realised that the man in the bad silver suit, with _shoulder pads_ he now noticed, and _flares_ , was still talking.  
  
"… and we'll be gone before you know it," he said, making an aeroplane zoom motion with his arm. "By the way, what year is it?"  
  
"I… it's…" He couldn't think with that damn dog barking. "Benny stop!" he shouted. The dog obliged and came to his knee with a wagging tongue.  
  
"He's gorgeous," said the woman.  
  
She slipped off the top of the spaceship and onto the pool deck. The man bit back his breath as she came near. She stank.  
  
Benny didn't mind, and when the woman knelt in front of him he planted a big slobbery kiss on her face. The two spacemen hopped down to the deck to join the woman.   
  
They stank too.   
  
"Captain Jack Harkness," said the silver suited man, extending a hand, "that loon behind me is King Yrcanos, and the beautiful girl at your feet is Peri. My apologises again about the pool, but don't worry, I'll fix it and fill it for you, and anything else you want fixed and filled."   
  
Peri gave Jack a sideways glance of annoyance for the last comment, but the pool owner didn't seem to notice it, or didn't understand what Jack meant, or was just being very diplomatic to the aliens (who possibly had guns hidden somewhere) who had invaded his yard.   
  
"Erm, I guess you'd better come inside then," the man said, nodding at his house, "And don't mind about the pool, it's fantastic just to see you. A spaceship. God, it's been _years_!"   
  
Jack blinked in surprise, but followed the man inside. He was tailed by his companions and the dog. 


	4. The man with a spaceship in his pool

  
The inside of the house was a lair of exotic décor and expensive luxuries. Tribal masks and abstract art graced the walls. A solitary bookshelf in the corner was lined with antique leather-bond books. Jack could tell from the book's never cracked spines that they were present for aesthetic value only.   
  
The carpet was deep mauve and a gaggle of black leather furniture stalked a costly-looking entertainment system.   
From the look of the technology Jack discerned that they were sometime in the mid-twenty first century and that the owner of the house and pool was rather well off. The leather furniture and pure-bred canine also went a ways to confirm that suspicion. Peri had seated herself on one of the posh couches with the dog, and appeared to be giving it a massage. She kept calling it "Eric" for some reason.   
  
Jack looked at their host. The balding man was glowing. He didn't seem to care that Peri was soiling his furniture.  
  
"So…" the man started awkwardly, shifting from foot to foot.   
  
"I could do with a shower," Jack said.  
  
"Of course!" The man fawned. "A shower, you co-" he caught himself, but Jack saw the man's nose wrinkle. They probably did stink. "I have two showers upstairs, one in the bathroom and one in the en-suit. Maybe your friends could have a bit of a wash, and you could explain to me what you're doing here?"   
  
_I already explained_ , Jack thought, but obviously pool man was a bit thick. Alright, he'd explain again, but another thought had occurred to him.  
  
"We'll need clothes."  
  
"Of course," said the man. He eyed Jack. "We look the same size, and I think my daughter might have some clothes that would fit her." He nodded at Peri. "But your other friend…"   
  
Jack noted the pool man's reluctance to use his companion's names.   
  
_Thick and has the memory of a goldfish_ , Jack decided.   
  
Still… He caught a glimpse of a wedding picture balanced on the corner bookshelf. Pool man was a bit of a looker when he had hair, and was still a bit cute without. Subtract the garish Hawaiian shirt and Jack could get comfortable with that.   
  
"That'll be fine," said Jack, completely missing whatever pool man had said about Yrcanos' clothing situation. Something else occurred to him, something shudder-worthy.  
  
"I think we'll have to put the explanations off for a bit I'm going to have to explain personal hygiene to Yrcanos." He doubted the one-time barbarian king would understand indoor plumbing and the repercussions of that fact were already making Jack cringe. The former Time Agent moved over to where Yrcanos had joined his wife and the dog on the couch. The dog growled at Jack's approach. "Hey," Jack said, retreating from a shaggy snout-full of bared teeth. "Good doggy. Peri, Hercules come on, we're going to get clean."   


Oo0oO

  
  
_Clean_   
  
Such a simple word, but sometimes so hard to obtain. It was the most beautiful word in the English language, or any language, Peri decided as she surveyed the bathroom in front of her.  
  
On Kropten washing had been regulated to sponge bathes. Melting enough water for a full-body soak was a luxury beyond extravagance, even for a queen.   
  
But this — this before her was beyond luxury. The pool man's bathroom (she had been led to the en-suit) had glossy marble flooring leading up to a hot tub, a pair of sinks stood on white pedestals, and tucked into a nook, almost as if it were afraid of the extravagance around it, was a frosty-glassed shower cubicle. Peri dropped her grimy furs to the floor, grabbed a fluffy white towel from a rack mounted on the back of the door, and stepped towards it.   
  
The shower had a removable massage head, and Peri used it to blast every particle of dirt from her body. It took several minutes before the water ran clear. Before entering the bathroom the pool man (strange that she didn't know his name, she would have to ask that as soon as she got out) had encouraged her to use any soap or shampoo she wanted. And she did. She covered herself in luscious suds and steaming water and let all of her cares rinse away down the drain. After, she thought of using the hot tub, but couldn't get the controls to work. Instead she dried herself with the fluffy white towel and stepped into an equally fluffy housecoat that was also hung on the door.   
  
Then she stepped into the hall.   
  
She passed the second upstairs bathroom as she padded over the carpet — oh so soft on her bare feet — and heard several strange noises coming from behind its door. There was a rush of a running shower and the flush of a toilet followed by Jack shouting and her husband booming.   
  
She continued to the room the pool man had indicated as belonging to his daughter. "She's at the university," he had said. "She won't mind if you borrow her stuff, and my wife's too small. Her clothing wouldn't fit you." He had been staring at her chest when he said the last part.   
  
Pool man's daughter's room was striped almost bare.   
  
Probably she had taken most of her possession to university with her. What was left lay in little dusty piles on the floor. There was nothing in the closet but a dresser that was lacking all but one drawer. Peri pulled it open and rejoiced to find a pair of underwear. Then she started prodding at the piles with her foot.   
  
It was obvious why this stuff had not been deemed worthy to make the trip the university. Some of it was old and ratty — grandma stuff, and the rest looked like impulse buys, and teenage leftovers. All of it was a size too small for Peri, but she managed to pull together an outfit out of the jumble: blue skirt, and a black and silver striped tank top that didn't cover any part of her properly. She had a bikini top on underneath that; the closest thing to a bra she could find. It was red and clearly showed at the tank top's plummeting neck.   
  
She didn't have a mirror, but she knew what she looked like. It was the TARDIS all over again. The ship had always given her a wardrobe selection to match what was on the floor in this room. But never mind.   
  
At least it was better than fur.


	5. Another lost soul

Jack sat in the lounge, the tight leather pants he had found making indents on the leather couch. His shirt was also tight. A black relic he had found buried at the back of his host's closet. It had "Oxford Class of '09" scribbled across its front in bold silver lettering.

There was nothing for him to do. Peri was still upstairs, probably taking pangs over her make-up or something. A muted flushing noise told him that Yrcanos was still playing with the toilet. Showers had been no revelation to the big man. Yrcanos had taken to the water with relish, yelling through the thin curtain to Jack about the Verduna, the paradise of the Gods, and Valhalla, the warrior's reward. The flush toilet, however, had been greeted with cries of amazement.

It was probably a good thing, Jack mused, as the low growling of running water sounded again, since the diversion kept Yrcanos safely in the bathroom. Jack had been unable to find clothes to fit the lumbering giant, and though Jack was comfortable with nudity, he had the strangest suspicion that their host wasn't.

The host. The pool man. Jack still hadn't got a name off him. Currently, the pool man was occupied in the garden, pouring gasoline onto the furs that Peri and Yrcanos had worn for so long. Jack half expected them to smoke green stink lines when the host finally set them alight. Jack's torn silver Torchwood guard uniform was also included in the impromptu bonfire. He hadn't been consulted on the matter, and neither had Peri or Yrcanos. Jack was slightly peeved about that, but he could understand why the pool man wanted to dispose of the bloody, smelly (probably parasite infested) garments as soon as possible. In any case, Jack had no special attachment to his stolen uniform, and it was ugly anyway, good riddance. Though he wondered how Peri and Yrcanos would react when they found out.

Time would tell. But currently time was being boring. Jack was alone with no one to talk to, and no answers to the questions swirling in his head.

He stared at his reflection in the glass sliding door separating the lounge from the garden. It was dark out, though a wall clock pegged the time at five 'o clock. From that Jack could place the season as late autumn. He could hear an air conditioner buzzing somewhere to keep him cool. Another sign of the times. The global warming problem  
wouldn't be solved for nearly a century.

That said, the pool man could stand to turn the air conditioning down a little. The house was freezing. Jack unconsciously rubbed his arms for warmth as he continued to gaze outside. The stars were just coming out. And, amazingly, the pool's spotlights were coming on, undamaged by the still smoking space ship they illuminated. The host finished dousing the furs and the silver suit and set his gas can aside. Flames rose from the pool deck. Jack could hear the sparks crackling from where he sat inside.

Then the sliding door opened, pushing his reflection to the side. The pool man came in and collapsed onto the couch beside Jack. The pool man picked up a remote and turned the television to the news but left it on mute. Jack's suspicions about the date were confirmed by the scroll at the bottom of the newscast: November 18, 2044.

"No one saw you crash," the pool man said, slapping the remote down beside his leg. "People are idiots. They walk around staring at the dirt all day never dreaming there could be more. I know there is more. I've seen more." Pool man paused for a moment. To Jack the speech seemed more like self-reassurance than anything, like pool man was trying to convince himself that he was better and had seen further than the rest of the teeming masses. Then the moment ended and pool man's eyes narrowed to dark slits.

"And then it was all striped away from me," pool man raged, sounding almost accusing.

Riddles within riddles Jack thought, though he was developing a few theories on who pool man might be. But, before he could ask, Peri came returned from where she had been hiding and turned Jack's thoughts to other, more instinctive, matters.

Her clothes were ridiculous, yet somehow they looked okay on her. Jack's gaze was again drawn to her bouncing chest, now out in the open instead of buried under layers of mouldering fur. She narrowed her eyes at his stare. He smiled back at her before rolling his eyes innocently.

She sighed and took a seat next to Jack on the couch. Jack found himself sandwiched between Peri and the bald pool man. He had to grit his teeth to stop the innuendoes from pouring out of his mouth. There were three couches in the room and yet they had all ended up on the same one.

Jack could have cursed his libido for rising up at the most inconvenient times. He had questions that needed to be answered. Like how a D-class reconnaissance vessel managed to over-shoot its time limit by two thousand years, or how it managed to get past the temporal barrier in the first place, or, more immediately, what was the name of their host. Jack's mouth was open and on the verge of asking when the man in question interrupted him.

"So, come very far?" he asked.

Duh, Jack sarcastically thought.

"What do you think?" he asked out loud, his voice as biting as his thoughts.

"Sorry," said the man. "A pretty stupid question."

"Just a bit, but don't worry," said Jack, trying to make up for his harshness. He winked at the man and threw out his most seductive smile. "We all make bad choices."

"I've travelled a bit myself," said the man, going on and completely missing the hint.

Jack rolled his eyes.

"Really?" asked Peri. She leaned her elbows onto her knees to look over Jack and meet the man's eyes.

"Yes," said the man. "I took quite a trip when I was younger. Probably went a bit further than you've been actually, though I can't be certain."

"I doubt it", said Jack sardonically.

"You think your wreck in the pool is so impressive", said the man. "I've seen and travelled in better."

"So have I," Jack growled. "Now tell us all where you went that was so impressive."

"The Fifth Great and Bountiful Human Empire," the man said, he gave a dramatic pause. "It's in the future. I travelled through time."

"Yawn," said Jack keeping a bored exterior. In his mind he was milling through possibilities. who the hell was this guy?

"That's, um, impressive," said Peri without enthusiasm.

"What? You don't believe me?" asked the man.

"No, we believe you," said Jack. "It just isn't that impressive."

"Yeah, but, time travel," the man said. "That's got to be worth something. It was The Fifth Great and Bountiful Human Empire."

"To your average space-Jo maybe," said Jack. "but I'm a Time Agent, Peri's crossed the vortex a few times herself, and I think Yrcanos is more interested in you toilet."  
Another flush rang out from above.

"And," Jack added. "I was born during the Fifth "Great and Bountiful" Human Empire, so I know the name is a euphemism. So nice try, but not impressive."

"But…"

Jack rolled his eyes, and then, very deliberately, snapped his fingers.

The man was startled, and then settled, giving Jack a very narrow gaze. Jack ignored it. He was examining the man's balding forehead, which was giving no signs of opening. The captain snapped his fingers again.

"I re-programmed it within a year of being abandoned back on Earth," the man said in a dangerous voice, "and removed it ten years ago."

"What?" Jack said. "Taking out a full brain spike circuit by yourself would be like doing a self lobotomy in the dark with an ice pick, you're lucky to be —"

"Alive?" the man asked tapping his head. "I know, but I didn't do it myself. I had some friends at an organization called Torch —"

"Wood," Jack finished for him. "I know the crowd. So you got someone else to hold the ice pick. Doesn't change a thing. Now, if I recall the story you consented to having the hole dug in the first place."

"I was young," the man protested. "I didn't know what I was getting into to, someone should have —"

"Oh grow up, you knew exactly what you were getting into," said Jack.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Peri interjected innocently.

The two men turned their scowling faces from each other to look at her.

"Peri," said Jack. “meet Adam Mitchell, another one of the Doctor's companions." He glared at Adam again. "But not a very long lasting one."

"Because that alien is a bastard," Adam said, "and that wasn't my fault. You probably know it too if you travelled with him. Did you?"

Peri nodded.

"'Course he treats girls different," Adam huffed.

"No," Jack said, the memories catching on his tongue. "Only that one girl."

And what he wouldn't give to see both of them again

Adam shot Jack another look.

"Rose," Jack continued. "I travelled with the Doctor right after you, got lots of stories from her and the Doctor, such as the one about how you fainted at your first sight of the Earth in orbit."

Adam's face was dominated by a sulk, and anger was flashing in his eyes. Jack saw the way he kept glancing at Peri with red cheeks and nearly laughed.

"He was sorry about leaving you with your head mixed up," Jack admitted, keeping his voice low and level, "and said that you helped face down a Dalek which gives you points in my books, though you probably had no clue what you were up against."

Adam relaxed a little.

"Damn straight I faced it down."

Then he tensed, his eyes blazing again. There was darkness there. Jack could see it, years and layers of self-righteous bitterness.

"And damn straight that bastard had no right leaving me with my head messed up like that. It took a year of my life to reprogram it. A year that I couldn't go outside or do anything except pound nails into my head. And my Mom still won't talk to me. She thinks I'm a… I don't know what she thinks, and my Dad too. And god, it HURT when they took it out, then my hair never grew back, and I had to lie about the scars to my wife and kids until I could get the surgery to cover it. The man made my life hell."

"Better than what he did to Peri," Jack said with a raised eyebrow.

"And what was that?" Adam asked.

Peri tucked her knees into her chest.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Another flush sounded.

"I'd better get Yrcanos away from the bathroom," she said and made her retreat.

"You should know that the Doctor did try to fix you up," Jack said quietly once Peri had left the room. "I watched him set the co-ordinates. We ended up in Japan."

"You try and defend him," said Adam, "but I don't see you travelling with him, or the girl. Do you have an explanation for that?"

Did he? Peri had been abandoned. Adam had been abandoned. And he had been left for dead on Satellite 5. The Doctor couldn't have been sure that the Daleks had shot him, pretty sure maybe…. Why couldn't he have just checked damn it? Even to retrieve his body. Didn't Jack merit at least that much respect?

The answer to Adam's question was no. Jack had no explanation for why he no longer travelled with the Doctor. But could Jack tell that truth to a scumbag like Adam Mitchell.

Or was he a scumbag? The Doctor told stories, but were any of them true? Adam had let them into his home and given them clothes, and his trust. He seemed a pretty decent guy. Maybe the Doctor mocked all of his former companions. He definitely liked insulting Rose's old boyfriend, granted he was a bit of a loser, but still, a nice guy. Maybe the Doctor was sitting with Rose right now talking about…

"It's a long story," said Jack. "and I'm still trying to get to the bottom of it. In the meantime, thanks, for everything. You gave us your home and trust us not to pull guns out of our asses and kill you, and I repay you by yelling at you for second-hand slander. I'm sorry. I wish there was some way I could apologise."

He shifted his hand closer to Adam's leg. Jack had visited Glabrous 5 once, a long time before he met the Doctor. Being bald was a big turn-on for the populous of that moon. It was a mark of experience or something. The smooth space extending upwards from Adam's forehead reminded Jack of that visit, all those bobbing golden domes waxed to a shine. He'd shaved his own head and they'd flocked to him like ants to honey. He'd had one hell of a time. But Adam did not take the cue. Instead he sneered at Jack, which took away any sympathy the former Time Agent had mustered, and any fleeting thoughts of reliving his experience on Glabrous 5.

"I'll bet it's a long story," the former companion said. Then he lost the sneer and blew air into one cheek. A rather immature gesture Jack thought. "My wife's coming home tonight, and my son Kedin will be back from his soccer practice at the same time. If you're staying I'll need some help making dinner. I hadn't planned on feeding six people."

"You make dinner?" Jack asked, somewhat surprised. He discreetly withdrew his creeping fingers.

"Every night. What? I'm a twenty-first century man, woman expect that kind of thing now."

Jack smiled. That was a tune he could relate too. Whatever Adam Mitchell was, it wasn't a scumbag.


	6. Dinner at the Mitchell's

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I realise it's a plot-hole for Adam and family to be able to understand Yrcanos when he's clearly speaking a different language. But we'll just pretend that Jack rescued a translation box from his ship and strapped it to Yrcanos' ankle or something.

  
Dinner was awkward, and it had nothing to do with the food. Adam had amazed Jack with his prowess in the kitchen. The former Time Agent had nothing to match his skills and was set to the task of chopping vegetables.  
  
Still, the meal (salad, rice, and stir-fry) had turned all right, and it was done before Adam's wife and kid arrived.  
  
No, the food definitely wasn't the problem.  
  
It wasn't even Yrcanos, who came to dinner dressed in a bed sheet toga held together by safety pins. The former king looked like a giant marsh mellow, or a person awaiting a haircut. Jack had managed to get him to shave during their time in the bathroom, and the loss of the beard took away a mighty fraction of the barbarian's magnitude.  
  
No, the problem was more subtle than Peri's booming husband. Or less subtle. Jack hadn't decided yet. No one at the table was talking, though Adam's small and sharply dressed wife kept passing dagger glances to her husband. Adam's son Kedin, a reedy pre-teen who screamed nerd, seemed to be trying to disappear into his hard backed chair. For his part, Adam poked at his food and fidgeted. No one in the Mitchell family seemed to be eating much. Just as well when Yrcanos was grabbing everything in sight.  
  
Jack was surprised when Kedin was the one to end the strangling silence.  
  
"So…" the boy said, mashing his stir-fry around with his fork, "you came from outer space?"  
  
"Kedin," the boy's mother said warningly.  
  
"We sailed through the stars and ran backwards along the river of time," Yrcanos boomed, shoving another handful of rice into his mouth. "Queen Peri of the Brown's cunning Captain Jackness guided us on our way!" A portion of rice confetti-ed out of his mouth as he completed the speech.  
  
"Captain Jack Harkness," Jack enunciated slowly. Then he looked at Kedin. The boy was sitting across from him. "We did travel quite a ways, yes."  
  
"Are you really a queen?" Kedin pestered Peri who was sitting on his right, separating the boy from Yrcanos.  
  
"I suppose I was for awhile," she answered.  
  
"Are you an alien?" Kedin asked.  
  
"No," Peri said.  
  
"And before you ask neither am I," said Jack, "Not so sure about him." He rolled his eyes at Yrcanos.  
  
Adam's wife let out a polite cough.  
  
"I am as much a man as you!" Yrcanos shouted.  
  
"Don't doubt it," said Jack, "I saw the proof." And he had in the bathroom. Jack didn't often get jealous, but whoa. He envied Peri. He'd been totally turned-off by Yrcanos at their first meeting, but with time the big man was starting to grow on him. The shaving helped.  
  
The table settled back into awkward silence.  
  
"When are you leaving?" Adam's wife asked after a constrained interval.  
  
"Anna please," Adam said, "did you see the state of their space ship? It's in the pool for god-sakes."  
  
"How am I supposed to know anything about space ships?" Anna said, "I'm not the genius in this family or did you forget for a moment since you weren't rubbing my face in it?"  
  
"Anna!" Adam pleaded, "Not in front of the guests."  
  
Kedin looked like he wanted to drop dead. Jack noticed Peri stop eating and carefully fold her arms in her lap. Yrcanos was staring with a look of bemusement. Jack idly wondered if spousal arguments never occurred on his planet. Couldn't be. This type of bickering happened on every single planet, moon, asteroid, and space station Jack had ever visited.  
  
"Guests? Guests?" Anna asked, her voice raising in volume and octaves, "Let me tell you about your _guests_ I'm sick of them. And cooking nice dinners doesn't make up for Carol."  
  
That bought a raised eyebrow from Jack.  
  
"I'm sick of it! I'm sick of your special meetings and business trips, I'm sick of your new technologies and job promotions, I'm sick of your guests, I'm sick of your friends, and I'm sick of you!" With that Anna rose from the table, tipping her chair backwards onto the floor with a crash, and walked stiffly, but quickly, away. The slam of a door echoed back to the dinning room a few moments later.  
  
"She has fire in her!" Yrcanos loudly observed.  
  
"I have to go to my room," Kedin said lamely, and quietly excused himself.  
  
Adam resumed listlessly picking at his food.  
  
Jack whistled.  
  
"He's right," Jack said, "full of fire and very alluring. Nice and lithe. Kind of reminds me of a cat. I can see why you married her."  
  
Adam shot him a look that said: "stuff it".  
  
"I'm very good with women," said Jack, "I could go talk to her if you like, maybe save you a few legal fees, or at least make sure you keep the dog when it happens."  
  
Adam snorted.  
  
Jack raised a forkful of stir-fry. The sapid scent rising off of it made his tongue water.  
  
"Suit yourself," said Jack.  
  
He put the fork in his mouth and let the taste overwhelm him. He closed his eyes and sighed in pleasure. It had been a long time since he'd had a meal this good.  
  
"Fine then," said Adam with a sharpness that snapped Jack's eyes back open.  
  
"I'm sorry," their host continued, "she gets these moods. It's my job. It's hard on her. I'm away a lot. Actually, you're lucky I was here when you made your… entrance. I don't know what Anna would have done on her own."   
  
"Right then," said Jack, pushing out his chair and giving a regretful glance to what remained of his meal. "I give a chat to the misses, you give a talk to your son because it's so obvious he needs a bit of good father-son time, and Peri…"  
  
"Yes?" she asked.  
  
"You find your husband something less Greek Toga to wear."


End file.
